Cadillac ATS Takes On Nürburgring’s North Loop for Continued
Testing +VIDEO

Latest stage in the development of Cadillac's "agile sport sedan"

DETROIT - December 23, 2011: The Cadillac ATS engineering team
traveled to the world famous Nürburgring in Germany to give the cars an
opportunity to perform in a strenuous, yet predictable environment. There,
on the Nordschleife, or “North Loop,” the next chapter in the
Cadillac ATS video series continues.

At this world-class road course, the team can fine-tune the ATS
calibrations for the new 270 horsepower 2.0L turbo four-cylinder and 3.6L
V-6 engines, along with the second- generation Cadillac Magnetic Ride
Control suspension.

Watch Chapter 3 of the Cadillac ATS development story "The Journey"

“No other facility in the world is like this. You can accomplish
more here in one lap around the ring than you can on dozens of tracks in
the U.S.,” said Dave Mikels, energy and powertrain integration
engineer. Mikels and his colleagues on the ATS team are
Nürburgring-certified performance test drivers.

“There are places where you’re airborne, and then there are
valleys where you’re in full compression. There are off-camber,
on-camber turns. There’s no other place in the world where you can
test for all of that, except here.”

Cadillac monitors every aspect of the cars and can transmit that data
back to calibration teams back in Michigan, who can then upload new
algorithms to calibrate shock stiffness and engine dynamics to continually
shave seconds off of lap times.

Additional details on the ATS will be announced at the 2012 North
American International Auto Show. The ATS, which will be revealed on Jan.
8, will be built at the Lansing (Mich.) Grand River plant alongside the
Cadillac CTS Sedan, Coupe and Sport Wagon and V-Series performance
cars.

Handpicked engineers tasked to create agile sport sedan

It’s a given that the luxury cars contain high technology, but the
finest must have something that cannot appear on the specification chart:
expertise. Engineers working on the all-new Cadillac ATS, which begins
production in 2012, were handpicked based on their roles in developing
other top Cadillacs – and how well they can drive and evaluate cars
on grueling test tracks.

Watch the original series preview video

Their shared goal: Create a new compact sport sedan challenging the best
cars in that category. Most of the engineers on the team also developed
Cadillac’s CTS and V-Series high-performance models, and have the
highest level of training as test drivers. Some are certified drivers on
Germany’s famed Nurburgring test track.

“It's been the persistent attention to detail in
noise-vibration-harshness, the gram-by-gram mass reduction, and consistent
focus on ‘fun to drive’ attributes that led this team to hone
the suspension and steering in the demanding environments of the German
Autobahn and Nurburgring Nordschleife,” said ATS lead development
engineer Chris Berube.

The ATS will be unveiled in 2012 and will be built at the Lansing Grand
River plant in Lansing, Mich., alongside the CTS Coupe, Sedan and Sport
Wagon family.